Rewriting History: Recent Narratives of our Past

Papers by: R.Mahalakshmi, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU (On Ancient Period); Syed Ali Nadeem Rizavi, former Secretary, Indian History Congress, Chairman and Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies in History, Aligarh Muslim University (On Medieval Period); and Mridula and Aditya Mukherjee, former Professors, JNU (On Modern History)

Chair and Moderator: Sucheta Mahajan, former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU and Convenor of IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History.

(Organised by the IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History under the Convenorship of Sucheta Mahajan)
 

Pandemics and Literature: Regional and Global Perspectives
by Kamlesh Mohan and Saurav Kumar Rai 
 

Guardians of the Republic: Essays on the Constitution, Justice, and the Future of Indian Democracy
by Ashwani Kumar (Om Books International, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member, Lok Sabha; Yogendra Yadav, Author, Activist and Public Intellectual; Prof. Neera Chandhoke, Former Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi; Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, Former Union Minister for Law and Justice 

Sandwiched between China and the US: South Korea's Quest of Transcending Diplomacy
 

Speaker: Prof. Moon Chung-in, James Laney Distinguished Professor, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.  Krause Distinguished Fellow, School of Policy and Global Strategy, University of California, San Diego, and co-Convener of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN)

Moderator: Prof. Alka Acharya, Director, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS)

The talk will deliberate on the convoluted dynamics and the new narratives in East Asia, in the context of present-day needs, from a mainly South Korean perspective. The lecture would seek to examine the unilateral and self-centred policies of the US under Trump 2.0., which are, to all extents and purposes, creating very damaging economic and political conditions for the world. It appears that the US is no longer playing the role of a hegemonic stabilizer, but contending with China to be the most powerful country. East Asia’s cognitive dissonance of the US has become severely aggravated under Trump 2.0.

This is the 3rd Gargi and Vidya Prakash Dutt Memorial Lecture 2026

(Collaboration: Institute of Chinese Studies)
 

Understanding Gulf Migration Through Fiction, Cinema and Cultural Networks

Discussants: Md. Shafeeq Karinkurayil, Associate Professor at MISHA, MAHE, author of ‘The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala’; Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, works on Malayalam cinema and cultural politics in Kerala; Ratheesh Kumar, Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU, engages with interdisciplinarity, cultural processes and social theory; Sebastian Thejus Cherian, Assistant Professor at the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, JNU and working on the representation of Gulf migration in Malayalam cinema

Moderator: Vijayalakshmi Rao, Professor at the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, JNU, whose research engages with French and Francophone literature, displacement and Gulf migration narratives.

This discussion examines Gulf migration through literary, aesthetic and sociological perspectives, foregrounding questions of representation, gender, language and cultural transformation. Focusing on Kerala’s long history of migration to the Persian Gulf, it explores how migrancy reshapes social life, media cultures and regional imaginations across Malayalam and global contexts.
 

Across the Himalaya – First Traverse by Women
 

Speaker: Vineeta Muni
Chair: Brig. Ashok Abbey (Retd), a veteran climber with over four decades of experience across the Karakoram, Himalaya and adjoining ranges.

The speaker reflects on her extraordinary 1997 Himalayan expedition, trekking 4,500 kilometres from Arunachal Pradesh to the Karakoram Pass crossing 42 high passes above 3,000 metres. Drawing on her experiences as a mountaineer and photographer, she recounts the physical demands and human encounters that shaped the journey. Interwoven with photographs and personal reflections, she will also read excerpts from her book on the same name as the title of the programme. 

(Collaboration: The Himalayan Club)

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

The Riddle of Sannyasa 
by Neeru Nanda (Har-Anand Publications, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Madhu Khanna, Professor of Indic Religion, Tagore National Fellow National Museum, New Delhi; Former Director, Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion & Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia; Neeru Nanda, Career Bureaucrat & Author of the book

Chair: Prof. Purshottam Agrawal, Former member UPSC & Former Chair, Centre of Indian Languages, JNU
 

Book Discussion Group

Contract Farming in Developing countries: The Promise and its perils

By Sudha Narayanan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

Discussants: Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, Farmer; Sayanten Bera, Journalist, Mint and Sudha Narayanan, Author of the book

Moderator: Siraj Hussain, Advisor, Food Processing

Walking out, Speaking up: Feminist Street Theatre in India
by Deepti Priya Mehrotra (Zubaan, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Uma Chakravarti, Former Professor, Department of History, Delhi University ; Dr Lata Singh, Associate Professor,  Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU ; Deepti Priya Mehrotra, Political scientist & Author of the book.

Iran: Recent Developments
 

Speaker: Amb D.P Srivastava, former Ambassador to Iran from 2011-15, served in Cairo, Riyadh, Washington Brussels and Prague and Dr. John Cherian, former Editor, Foreign Policy, the Frontline

Chair: Amb K P Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis, and World Peace University, Pune.

This talk examines the latest wave of protests in Iran, widely interpreted by sections of the international media as a potential tipping point for the regime. Analysing the external pressures shaping the situation, rhetorical threats from Trump without military intervention, and Israel’s advocacy of regime change—while assessing the broader regional implications. The discussion also foregrounds India’s significant strategic stakes in Iran’s stability and in the security of the wider region.